Can Open Data Feed the World?
Over 7.4 billion (1) people currently inhabit the Earth and an estimated 800 million (2) go to bed hungry every night – predominantly women and children. Experts tell us we currently produce enough food to adequately feed the global population (3), so why do so many go to bed hungry? What steps must we take to reduce this number as the global population is projected to grow to over 9.7 billion people by 2050? (4)
If we are going to feed the world, we need open data policies, especially in government, to enable comprehensive decisions based on facts and evidence. This global perspective will help identify existing data and data gaps and sharpen the focus on how open data can foster innovation and collaborative research, enabling comprehensive solution sets.
What is open data and what does it mean to have an open data policy in government? Generally speaking, open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone. The adoption of government policies to open government data promotes value creation, accountability and transparency. The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative – comprising more than 600 international organisations representing governments, donors, businesses and not-for-profits – continues to be a leader in advocating for the adoption of open data policies. GODAN focuses on opening agriculture and nutrition data as a mechanism to support sustainable development and solve long-standing global food security challenges.
People around the world use data to make decisions every day. Although we may not see or understand all of the intricate details, we utilise vast amounts of data every day. For example, when heading out of town, most of us check the forecast wherever in the world we are travelling to before packing our bags. If the forecast calls for rain, we pack an umbrella and a raincoat. If it is going to be cold, perhaps we pack gloves and a hat. How much data does a service like weather forecasting require? The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) is a critical open government data source that has enabled global weather forecasting. The NCEI “hosts and provides public access to one of the most significant archives for environmental data on Earth. (5)” The NCEI provides over 25 petabytes of comprehensive global atmospheric, coastal, oceanic and geophysical data.
We haven’t always had the luxury of detailed weather forecasting at the tip of our fingers.
